4 Tips on How to Succeed in the CrossFit Open

1. Check your ego

If you’re new to CrossFit and using the CrossFit Open for the fun of it or as an evaluation tool ( two good reasons to do it), definitely check your ego, scale the workouts and make your goal doing the best you can. ‘Checking your ego’ is a popular credo in the CrossFit world and for good reason: Most people who walk in the door of a box have little to no experience in Olympic lifting, gymnastics and high-octane metabolic conditioning. These are three of the pillars of CrossFit workouts that high-mileage running has little positive effect on (more likely a negative effect). A good marathoner has plenty of aerobic cardiovascular capacity, but a first overhead squat (for example) requires shoulder, hip and ankle mobility that the typical distance runner. Not to mention core strength, balance, coordination, etc. So check the ego and relish the role of being a beginner.

2. Always warm-up

“As far as I am concerned, there’s no difference between the warm up and the workout,” says Spartan SGX coach John Hayley of Unbreakable Fitness in Forest Park, Illinois. “The workout won’t ‘work out’ unless the body has been thoroughly, methodically, and systematically prepared for the demands it’s about to encounter. A half-assed warmup is a recipe for ineffective training and injury.”

3. Always cool-down

“Most coaches agree that these extra 5 to 10 minutes at the end of intense exercise are necessary to ease your body safely out of high-energy mode to balanced calm. Here are three very good reasons you should make a cool-down a consistent part of every workout, along with some moves to help make it easy.”

4. Don’t Dwell

Use the “So What?” principle. When things go awry, start moving on with a shrug and asking, So What?

“I don’t ask myself this question to be dismissive of a difficult situation,” writes Spartan founder Joe De Sena.“In fact, quite the opposite. What I’m really asking is,‘In the face of this challenge, what am I going to do next? How am I going to deal with it? What can I do to make this situation better?’”

Keep your eye on the goal you have for competing and don’t let a mistake or poor workout rob your enthusiasm. Watch the world’s best CrossFitters and the ones that do well in the multi-day CrossFit Games are the ones that stay in the moment and don’t let one poor performance knock them off their whole game. The Open is a five-week competition. If you have a bad week, learn from it and move on. More on this from Joe De Sena.